Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebels in the mountainous Daglica area of Hakkari province, which borders Iraq, detonated explosives on a road as a military vehicle passed, killing two soldiers and wounding a third, the sources said.

Separately, soldiers killed a total of 20 PKK fighters in two days of operations in the Beytussebap region of neighbouring Sirnak province, according to a statement from the governor's office and information provided by security sources.

The autonomy-seeking PKK, deemed a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the United States and European Union, took up arms in 1984, and more than 40,000 people, mainly Kurds, have died in the conflict since then.

A ceasefire in Turkey's southeast collapsed last year, and thousand of rebels, soldiers and police and civilians have died in the ensuing violence.